After applying updated versions of the geospatial datasets that comprise the CEC Land Use Screens for electric system planning, two technical resource potential maps are provided: 1) Total Resource Potential (Solar, Resource Potential Basemap) and 2) Lower Implication Land (Solar). The Total Resource Potential areas is the broadest area of the landscape that is developable for solar energy from a legal, technical or economic perspective. The Lower Implication Land map is determined by the Core Land Use Screen. Lower-implication lands are areas where, if renewable energy development were to occur on them, there would be relatively fewer consequences for biological planning priorities, croplands, or land intactness (according to the high-level datasets used in the analysis).  

The environmental datasets used to determine lower implication land are generally broad-scale, landscape level information providing high-level estimates of renewable resource potential. This information, and thus the resulting resource potential maps, should not be used, on their own, to guide siting of generation projects nor assess project-level impacts.   

See the August 2025 Modeling Advisory Group (MAG) webinar and the Land-Use Screens for Electric System Planning report for more details on the Core Land Use screen and on technical resource potential maps.